Awoonga- the count down.

[Member]

yeah john
the moondy dam will get a fair bit more.  spoke to billy out the back of mondy this morning and he said he cant get out of his joint due to the runoof and all ends up in mondy.  by the looks of it, it has come up 1 metre in the last 5 days. 

just got back from the wall and there are a few mullet going over still but that is all i could see.  from reports a lot of barra at the top of the dam, and a heap aparently up the iveragh arm.

cheers
kh

[Member]

hi all,

Last report this morning, Monduran 30cm below spillway. I have someone up there checking it out now, It will go over for sure...We had 170mm here in town yesterday, Gaeta (catchment area) had about the same..Lots of water to go in.

I spent half of yesterday locating people sitting on the roofs of allegedly invincible mitsubishi magna's that double as boats

Cheers Steve

[Member]

170mm GEEEZZZZ

How much more of this are we gonna get . 

[Member]

stevie
bad luck about the dam mate going over in the next couple days.  if you are in my boots, and watching my barra going over the wall (and surviving) you can feel my pain.  the dam needs a flush but there has been approximately 2500 go over.  spoke to finns today he is a little hesitant to stock at the moment, but all will be discussed in the meeting in the next couple of nights.

cheers
kurt

[Member]

Mondy spillway at 5 pm today.

Thanks Kurt for the info about stocking. I have been meaning to call John this week. its sad seeing all the fish go over anywhere. If they all survived it would be awesome...but?? Hope they do.

Cheers Steve

[Member]

steve,
i sat there watching all arvo yesterday and all day today at the pump station, and counted the number that went over.  2 guys further down stream counting mort's.  7 were found from head injuries (but i think in your profession they refer to it as cranial trauma or a ding in the head). around 2,500 went over since the overflow has started, so the percentage is pretty good that have survived the initial stages of the drop.  many rumours going around about thousands dead below the wall, but they were not encountered at pikes and further towards the dam wall.  thanx to the rumour starters as it was my day off and had nothing better to do...... .  again, monduran has a much different spillway design so steve, you guys will experience similar hopefully to us guys.  limited numbers going over and limited mortality rates.

good luck brother

cheers
kh

[Member]

Man... I am astounded at the number going over the wall at these types of events.  Do the fish sense this and congregate because of some urge (spawning or something like that).  I know this happens in the winter months especially with Bass.  I spoke to the ranger at Baroon Pocket a while back and he told me about the time some years back when it went over during the winter months.  That spillway is not very friendly for fish so thousands died being pummelled on the concrete below.

A shame they go out but give I guess it gives the wild stocks a boost.  That is if they make it pasts the pillagers below the wall.

Cheer geoff

[Member]

One major thing gurgles in my head- watching hundreds go over the wall puts into reality how many bloody fish there are in these dams. I pushed upstream a few miles from the wall today having a look about. We saw barra on the sounder- as per usual, we spooked barra off the surface, as is typical, and we landed two and missed a third in under an hour- just normal. How many are in these massive waterways? My mind is racing, today. A small percentage over the wall of a massive stock equals a lot of escapees, but it leaves a big portion still swimming about.
Johnny

[Member]

The attached picture was email through of Awoonga Overflowing.

Ed.

[Member]

john is right.  to put more in to perspective, 2.7 million fingerlings since 1996 have been stocked, 25% has been quoted by the dpi as a survival rate to legal length = 650,000 (i think that the dpi arent really accurate on this one, more like 35%), 10% of these fish are killed through angler impact = 585,000, 10% to winter mortality and natural attrition = 526,500, and lets run a ball park figure of 5% over the wall (nowhere near it) = 500,175.  thats what is predicted in there, any other attributes to be considered would be deemed insignificant.  that is still a heap of fish left in there, so im with johnny on this one, sad to see them leave, but there is still good numbers available.

cheers
kurt

[Member]

Man... I am astounded at the number going over the wall at these types of events.  Do the fish sense this and congregate because of some urge (spawning or something like that).  I know this happens in the winter months especially with Bass.  I spoke to the ranger at Baroon Pocket a while back and he told me about the time some years back when it went over during the winter months.  That spillway is not very friendly for fish so thousands died being pummelled on the concrete below.

A shame they go out but give I guess it gives the wild stocks a boost.  That is if they make it pasts the pillagers below the wall.

Cheer geoff

I think Johnny touched on this elsewhere, but the effect of 2500+ big Barra hitting a small system like the Boyne, could wipe out what is currently a good system. Big barra need to eat regularly, they could easily wipe out the mullet population in the river, which could have a roll on effect up and down the food chain.  My idea would be to promote the taking of these escapees, however, it's closed season now so nobody can fish for them.  The Boyne may be fun to fish for a little while, but it could then be dead for years.

[Member]

Yeah noticed effect of this a while back when the PRFMA and DPI did an electrofish in the stretch below NPD. 

Heaps of fish(bass yella's and lungies) recaptured and taken back up to the dam.  By the time we got them, they had definitely lost a lot of condition.  I have noticed this also in more recent flushes too.  Initially the bass where hitting so hard, well above their weight I thought, but now they have been in the system for a bit they aren't as feisty.  Less food more competition tougher for them to survive so they suffer a bit.

Cheers

[Member]

Spent the last 4 days flooded in at Agnes, couldn’t think of a better place to be stuck.

Dropped into Awoonga on the way home this morning to see the Great Escape, quiet a spectacle to watch.   

Awoonga Spillway


Level 40.4m


Pikes Crossing


Over the top

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3 photos are courteously of GAWB on Monday